Get Better at Hiring: Learn from These Common Mistakes

Get Better at Hiring: Learn from These Common Mistakes

The biggest church staffing mistake you can make is hiring the wrong person.

Not only does making a bad hire cost your church a lot of money in the long run, it can ruin morale, productivity, and vision-alignment among your church staff.

Some people just have a knack for making good hires. Others have had a lot of years of experience to give them impeccable intuition. If neither of those are you, that doesn’t mean you can’t learn to hire great staff. You may just need to learn what not to do.

1. Involving the wrong people in the hiring process

Before you start a search for a new church staff member, your team should ask, “Who should be involved in making this hire?”

This is probably the most crucial piece. Are the people who wrote the job description and requirements the ones actually doing the interviews? Are you letting both this new hire’s direct manager and fellow team members interview the candidates?

If you have one person writing the job description and another person interviewing, yet the team that this candidate is expected to work with has never met them, how will you know if there is a good culture fit on both sides? We’ve seen churches make this mistake too many times, causing tension, confusion, and a longer search process than expected.

Having the right people on your hiring team is crucial to the success of the new hire.

2. Failing to detail the exact role that needs to be filled

Before you write a job description, can you name the specific needs that this position will fill?

We often see rapidly growing churches that are overwhelmed with new initiatives, so they start hiring because they know they need help. However, they can’t name the areas of responsibility that this new person will take over.

Until you lay out what responsibilities you want this role to take on, it will be hard to make the right hire. You might think you need a Student Pastor, but once you write out all the details you may find out what you have actually needed this whole time is a Family Pastor or a NextGen Pastor.

3. Writing a confusing job description

Is your job description clear and concise, or is it confusing and difficult to read? You might not know what 100% of the responsibilities of this new job will be, and of course there is always room for “other duties as assigned.”

However, you should know what 95% of this position is going to look like so you can properly recruit for the role and set candidates’ expectations upfront. Without a clear vision, objectives, duties, performance benchmarks, and expectations, it will be very difficult to gauge whether or not your new hire is serving your ministry well.

4. Playing the “what if” game

You want to hire the best person you can find for your role, but are you missing out on great candidates because you are waiting for “the one?”

You should always hire slowly with intentionality and prayer, but don’t miss out on the right candidate because you’re comparing them to an imaginary “what if” standard.

Hiring always comes with risk, but if you’re abiding by best practices, seeking outside help, and have a candidate that meets both the cultural and competency pieces you’re looking for, they might be the right candidate for the role.

Candidates are people, and no person is perfect. Don’t miss out on someone amazing because you are waiting for perfection. Don’t let fear guide your search instead of faith.

5. Neglecting to do thorough reference and background checks

A crucial key to a successful hiring process is a thorough reference and background check.

“A misconception about conducting church background checks is that they are intended to ‘dig up dirt’ on a potential hire. This is not the case. The process of conducting church background checks are intended for you to get to know your potential new team member better and gain clarity on whether they would be a good fit for your team or not.”

If you come across anything concerning on a background check, make sure you give your potential new hire a chance to explain. You never know what the circumstances are behind bankruptcy, debt, or a late payment until you sit down and talk about the details with the candidate.

6. Not interviewing the spouse/family of the candidate

If you are in the final stages of the search process, you should definitely be interviewing the candidate’s spouse. You can tell a lot about a person in watching how they interact with their spouse.

Is the entire family ready for a move? You might have a candidate who is thrilled to move for a new position, but you might find out that the spouse and family are not ready for a big move. If you only ever talk to the candidate, you might not know how their family is feeling about a possible transition.

Are you expecting the spouse to be heavily involved in your church? If so, that’s even more of a reason to include them in the interview process and set expectations upfront.

These are a few of the hiring mistakes we see being made. What are some things you wish you had been told before you started making hires for your organization?

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Jeff Gilmer is a member of the Candidate Relations Team at Vanderbloemen Search Group. Prior to his time at Vanderbloemen, Jeff spent six years as Assistant Manager of Patron Services at Houston Symphony. In his role on the Candidate Relations Team, Jeff continually strives to improve communication and create a wonderful experience for all candidates.

3 Comments

Great article! I would add to #2 that as we define a role by creating a job description, we also need to define certain strengths we need in that staff member to fill the role. For instance, if the position is part of a fast-paced environment, you will look for a candidate who can not just “survive” a fast-paced environment but rather is wired to thrive in it. We have found that leaders find it tremendously helpful to create a profile with Profile Insights (http://www.ministryinsights.com/leaders/position-insights/) during the staffing process. A profile doesn’t set up a fairy-tale scenario (#4) but rather is helpful in targeting candidates with certain strengths that are a good fit for the position.

I’ve also found that hiring someone that has “passion” is not enough on its own. I can have the passion to be a brain surgeon, but if I do not possess the skills, I will fail. Just as there are entry-level jobs in which you gain the necessary skills to advance, there are also entry-level churches where a senior or staff pastor can gain the skills to lead larger churches and congregations.

I would not want to attend a 1,000 member church led by someone fresh from seminary or who’s job experience is just as an intern. Good points, and of course there are even more.